Renault-Nissan seeks to double savings from closer cooperation

Combined sales volumes are expected to rise to 14 million vehicles by 2022 from 10.5 million expected this year, with revenue advancing by a third to $240 billion, the alliance said at a news conference in Paris on Friday.REUTERS | September 16, 2017, 14:10 IST

Chairman Carlos Ghosn has pledged to step up the pace of integration after Nissan took a controlling stake in Mitsubishi last year. The 18-year-old Renault-Nissan pairing has only recently begun rolling out cars on common architectures.

Combined sales volumes are expected to rise to 14 million vehicles by 2022 from 10.5 million expected this year, with revenue advancing by a third to $240 billion, the alliance said at a news conference in Paris on Friday.

However, any investors impatient for a new capital or management structure to speed integration and prepare Ghosn's succession were likely to be disappointed.

There was "no answer from Ghosn on the possibility of a merger by 2022", Jeffries analyst Philippe Houchois noted.

Ghosn has been seeking a new second-in-command, sources told Reuters in June. But such plans are linked to thornier questions about the balance of power between the two main carmakers and the French government's outsize clout as Renault's biggest shareholder, supported by double voting rights.

Twelve new pure-electric models will be on the road by 2022 as Renault-Nissan seeks to defend the head-start it gained with the current generation of battery cars, spearheaded by the Nissan Leaf and Renault Zoe, as more competitors join the fray.

With 5.27 million cars and vans delivered in the first half of the year, Renault-Nissan now claims the mantle of the world's biggest carmaker, ahead of Volkswagen and Toyota , even though Renault has never consolidated the sales of its 43.4 percent-owned Japanese affiliate into its own.

Under existing plans, the alliance is seeking to increase synergies - from cutting costs and boosting revenue - to 5.5 billion euros next year from 5 billion recorded in 2016.

Prices of most SUVs were cut between Rs 1.1 lakh and Rs 3 lakh following the implementation of GST, which subsumed over a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax, and VAT from July 1.